Here's hoping to inspire more winter campers out there

This was not Algonquin but close enough (just minutes from the southern boundary). Haliburton Highlands Water Trail is literally connected to Algonquin in the south. This area is a great place to explore in the winter as there are numerous parking lots that are plowed for access. The area is remote (not many users this time of year) and closer for those coming from GTA. Some ski-do traffic should be expected but you could easily avoid these.

Our 4d-trip involved parking at a plowed access area and snowshoeing on land for a few hundred meters followed by about a 1km hard-water walk. The snow was ~3ft deep throughout and the recent snowfall left us working a bit harder even as we tried to walk on old ski-do tracks.

We set up camp at one of the designated summer sites to guarantee ourselves of a good clearing for our 9x11 tent and a good access to the lake. This was not a bad idea since the shoreline was steep and rocky for a better part of the lake. Consequently, firewood in the vicinity of the summer site was depleted but that was only a minor nuisance.

The temps during the trip were unseasonably warm, with our coldest day being day 1 (-16.5deg C). The days progressively got warmer and by day 2 and most of day 3, we were seeing the temps hover around 0 deg Cs. It definitely could¡¦ve been colder!!!

Aside from snowshoeing around our site, we spent a few hours ice-fishing the lake that we were on and also a nearby interior lake. Argh, it¡¦s a good thing that fishing¡¦s not the real draw for us to get out on these trips coz we only managed ONE nibble.

Here goes:
Setting up camp and home for the next 4 days. You¡¦ll notice the stove piping was directed straight up. This provided an extremely good draw BUT a poor dispersal of sparks. The pipe orientation was changed after the first night AND one 3mm spark hole on the tent ¼
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Inside view of the tent through the rear window
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Split maple is neatly piled such that kindling pieces are set up in one pile (left) and longer burning pieces were placed directly under the stove. I experimented by oversplitting my bigger pieces to allow for better heat regulation of my stove. Larger pieces of wood tended to overheat our damn tent due to my new oversized (11x11x24) stove ¼
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Something new for our set-up this year¡KI¡¦ve secured the stove pipes against each other using tent pegs that are punched through the overlapping segments of pipe. Easy in, easy out!!!
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The open end of the stove pipe is capped with a TEE to prevent backdraft. Keep in mind that having a TEE does slightly compromise (reduce) your draw.
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Hauling firewood from across the lake. We were lucky to find a nice 25ft standing dead maple that kept us warm for 3 nights. It was a lot of work to move this much wood but we were in no rush º
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Hoping for brookies
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Winterized thermos (to the left is an older Thermos w/ the pop-able center pour cap and to the right is a newer MEC 1L thermos with a simple twist ¡§pour-able¡¨ cap; FYI, the 15 dollar MEC 1L thermos is the better performer of the two and holds heat much longer).
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Winterized stove (windscreens are essential especially during the winter). We use our Primus to fry anything outside of the tent, which in this case were sausages. We do this to alleviate odor build-up inside the tent aside from our own º
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Our camp during the day.
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Our camp during the eve.
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The hike to a nearby lake.
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A nice clearing for a change in scenery and easier snowshoeing.
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The only set of tracks of wildlife that we came across during our day hike.
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Nightscapes and your winter constellations.
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For larger rez pics, go here: [url]http://life-outside.smugmug.com/gallery/7287040_U2XT8/1[/url]

I've never had an opportunity to do winter camping like this, but after seeing this I'm thinking I would like to try. Very inspirational!

Questions:

Is the duct tape just give an extra layer of insulation or is there another purpose I'm overlooking?
How do you get water?

Thanks again for the excellent trip log and I look forward to your response.

Jim

http://www.algonquintrips.blogspot.com

Jim - answer for ya...
Is the duct tape just give an extra layer of insulation or is there another purpose I'm overlooking?
- I use duct tape to hold the yellow closed cell foam together that's all.

How do you get water?
- I have both an ice chisel (large chisel with a hardwood shaft) and an ice auger to break through the lake ice. Both items are not necessary but will serve as your insurance for checking ice thickness if you plan to walk on the lake. If you don't ice-fish (and keep in mind that ice-fishing is banned in Algonquin), then just an ice chisel will do. You can chisel out a water hole in 10minutes. The auger can do the same in 1min :P
- You can also use other methods to get water like using Dogbyte's classic method of using a hatchet to create a pothole on the ice surface and then drilling using a climbing screw to reach the water. I've also simply used a hatchet to hack out a hole to the depth of the water...this can take up a long time depending on the thickness of the ice.

Great Jake....thanks for posting...
I love the new stove you made.....how does work compared with the old one...

Cheers
Mike

Excellent!

Just wanted to know what kind of tent you have there? I like it. Also what does it weight, if you know? Great shot of your tent and the constellations too!

Cheers
Shawn

Another note on the stove...

I like the idea of wooden handles...no need to wear gloves to open dampener or door.

I like the idea to have the stove higher to put wood under it for storage and also help dry it out if wet.


Cheers
Mike

Hey Jkr ....

GREAT write up and photos. I was wondering about the tent you were using. Is it a four season tent that you modified with a "chimney hole" for ventilation or a tent specifically made for hot tenting. If you made it, what did you use to insulate the tent from the pipes?

I thinkn there are more and more of us considering winter camping. I was out with Markus last weekend, and while the work was hard, the trip was just as enjoyable. I'm even considering getting a hot tent myself, but am still doing more research.

Thanks again!

Jeff P
http://algonquincanoeing.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the great post.......JKR.

I have been seriously considering winter camping. I just need to find myself a hot tent.

Your post just confirms how badly i want to go!

SBA

MikeB - I'll be writing up another post about the stove. The new stove worked well and incorporated a lot of practical features that I wanted. Some examples are: the wooden handles that are cool to touch so no need to work with gloves or pliers like my old one; folding legs that can raise the stove high enough for wood storage; better draft control using a slider mechanism. As for performance, it actually overheated our 9x11 tent. So I gotta figure out how to fix that now. It sucks to be sweating profusely in the tent when it's -20C outside. Know what I mean

I assume you guys made out fine with my refurbished stove. I "prettied" that one up as much as I can for Markus

JeffP/Pathfinder - I made the tent using an old canvas tent. I based the shape of the tent using Eureka's Timberline frame which I bought separately and current on-the-market Snowtrekker tents. You can read more here on my old post at MYCCR back when I posted it.
http://www.myccr.com/SectionForums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=18030&p=195757&hilit=canvas+tent+conversion#p195757

The stove pipe jack (material around the stove pipe) is made out of high temp aluminized fabric. I found it at a specialty industrial high-temp clothing maker (ie for welders).

The pics of the tent were actually from a trip with Markus in November 07? out at Booth lake.

Lastly, if you're handy in any way, consider making your own winter gear. In three years that we've been hot-tenting, I've made two hot-tents and just finished my 2nd woodstove. I knew next to nothing about sewing or sheetmetal-bending when I started. My gear is customized to our needs and more practical than what's out there and only cost a fraction

Hope that helps.

ga-ga!!


Awesome Jake, just awesome....love your night shots dooood!